How Cloud, IoT Are Altering the Security Landscape

How Cloud, IoT Are Altering the Security Landscape

Cyber-threats continue to evolve as businesses adopt public clouds and IoT devices. Here's why businesses should pay more attention to security.

Ransomware on the Rise

New ransomware samples increased 58% in Q2 from Q1 due to fast-growing new families, including CTB-Locker and CryptoWall. The total number of ransomware samples grew 127% from Q2 2014 to Q2 2015.

Malware Growth

McAfee Lab's malware samples grew 12% in Q2 from Q1, reaching more than 433 million samples.

Mobile Malware Infection Dips

While the total number of mobile malware samples grew 17% in Q2 from Q1, mobile malware infection rates fell by about 1% per region. The exceptions: North America, which saw a drop of almost 4%, and Africa, which remained the same.

Spam URLs Grow

New spam URLs and their domains grew by 380% in Q2 versus Q1. Most of the increase is attributed to hundreds of thousands of auto-generated or sequential domains dedicated to spam campaigns.

Phishing for Data

Every hour in Q2, more than 6.7 million attempts were made to tempt Intel Security customers into connecting to risky URLs via emails, browser searches, etc.

Millions of Infected Files

Every hour in Q2, more than 19.2 million infected files were exposed to Intel Security customers' networks.

Intel Security's five-year security threat analysis finds increasingly "evasive malware and long-running attacks" with the nature of attacks changing as enterprises have moved to the cloud. The Intel Security report reveals that attackers are taking advantage of more users, the overabundance of data now available, growing networks and new devices. Already, attacks and breaches against Internet of things (IoT) devices have started. The "perfect storm was the massive increase in the types and volume of devices, supported by a huge expansion in virtualization and public clouds," according to the report. Some of these threats succeed because businesses ignore easy security measures, such as paying attention to updates, patches, password security, security alerts and default configurations. Businesses also need to implement security policies and procedures. This means changes and improvements around threat intelligence, the recruitment of more security professionals, security technology innovation and engagement with governments, according to the study. Here are key findings from the research that indicate why businesses should pay more attention to security.